RUGBY Town ended a five-match run without a league victory at Marlow on Saturday to restore some lost confidence among Dave Stringer’s squad.

The Valley boss, who had witnessed his side inflict a 2-1 Red Insure Cup defeat on Woodford away in midweek, was pleased to see his men carry on the good work in Buckinghamshire but he was quick to point out there’s plenty of room for improvement.

Stringer said: “The 5-3 win doesn’t tell the whole story. With ten minutes left we were 5-1 up and well in charge. But we conceded two sloppy goals and that was really frustrating.

“The game looked closer than it was. We played really well for 80 minutes, dictated play, scored some good goals and then we think it’s all over.

“Instead of me going into the dressing room at the end and patting the boys on the back, I was in there giving them a kick up the backside.”

He continued: “Those two late goals we conceded puts a different slant of the match. It sounds as though it was close but it never was.

“However, it’s three important points and gives us some self belief going into Saturday’s home clash against Ashford.”

Stringer was missing several influential performers with the strike duo of Tyrone Fagan and Seb Hamilton sidelined while defender Melvin Gourlay again sat out the action.

Stringer added: “We were a few down although in Seb Gaskin-Lake we had the best player on the park. He had a great game up front and showed his experience. He’d been at Tamworth for a couple of seasons and he was making his full debut for us. Overall it was a good team effort but we must learn from those last ten minutes.”